As a former foreign language major in college, I can attest to the necessity of a minimum of three to four years of another language to achieve any fluency whatsoever. We are not doing our future leaders any favors by reducing the requirement from two years to one. The U.S. is already the only major world power without a mandatory second language in its school systems.

I suggest that if we are to offer only one year of another language, it should be Latin. This would help immensely with English grammar and vocabulary as well as lay the foundation for the future study of any of the romance languages.

Christine Wardlow, Littleton

This letter was published in the Aug. 27 edition. For information on how to send a letter to the editor, click here[2].